Last night i did a serious 5 hour critisim and self critism session where I asked myself do I needlessly put myself in danger? I anaylised my action throughout the last two years and realized that my method of political organization is basicly correct and whatever serious rsiks i take as part of the movement are the only options that I have given the circumstances.
People who dont see the problems that I face as an organizor are quick to jumpt to conclusions that I am either a crazed dictator who forces people to do what I want or that I am an anarchist who does whatever I want. Both analysis are incorrect. When organizing under constant attack one does not have the luxury to hold open congresses or public meetings or other such things. One must organize based on the concreate reality that one is facing. In the case of Guelph, the liqudation of Pflug Back as an organizor was a sever blow to the movement. The tragetting of our base of support for arrest also struck a blow, as did the arrest of girr and other organizors. Given these circumstances our capacity for meetings and acting in the pre g20 days is virtually immpossible. Add to this the devection from our movement of those who blame our repression on ourselves and are quick to repudiate our politics so that they may get funding to run programs that we ourselves started, getting badly needed funding from groups that would make our organization stronger. Why did opirg guelph choose to fund these groups for there free meal programs that we started while we have to pay for our food programs out of our pocket. Its no accident that at the hight of the occupy movement and preparing for our election aaron samuels, a solid guy and key organizor was arrested. its no accident that first myself, then kelly the giir got targetted for arrest. SOS as an organization use to have meetings, plan things and implement them. Now due to legal reasons and the fact that most of us are poor, homeless looking for places meetings are hard to have. Why did the crown say if you want to hang with kelly you must quit SOS? because SOS as an organization was marked for liquidation. For The People, an open anti poverty anti colonialist organization is running a minimulist program due to economic neccessity and the fact that Key people , myself included are up on charges. But this program is still run.
So we dont have open meetings, how do we organize in a democratic method, several people have been forced to become the centre, ask other people in the group there opinion and based on this attempt to implement our minimulist program in the face of repression. Despite the fact that we are doing this people just love to critisze us, call us all sorts of names and say we are not acting democraticly. I would love nothing more then to have weekly meetings seta solid program where we are all at the table. The material conditions dont allow this to happenned. Yet we still ran myself in the election and put forward the callout for occupy. We still do our sunday programs, maybe not on time but we still refuse to become liquidated. In terms our my resent charges, i feel i have been targetted not because of what i said but because of what i organize. Why was the opp on my website, what other survelliance is there. If i wasnt arrested for this there would be another excuse.
In kitchener the problem is the same, organizors are targetted, repression increases, people are so desperate economically facing there own problems and dealing with the day to day violence that the only way desisions are made are over coffe or the forced centre must hunt people down and ask there imput to draw up a program. Yet programs are drawn up, desisons are made and implemented. One anarchist comrade use to always accuse me of using fucked up tactics, after chilling with us for some time she now uses the same tactics and is true spot collective cadre. By rejecting her background, burning her bridges and truely living among the people. she realises how hard it is to organize under these conditions and now critisizes those anarchists who attack us for maintaining there priveledge and not realizing we are fighting to build socialism with our own bodies.
The call from liberals and do gooders, reject your politics and become another soup kitchen flys in the face of all our sacrifice and victories. People during election debates cheer not cause im a good speaker but because i refuse to reject our politics, which is what draws people to the movement and gives us something to live for. our politics is our hammer to smash that which attacks us and without our politics we are nothing.
The other thing that people attack us for is that our slogans start hate. Open your eyes the hate is already here. Go down cederhills and see. People hate cops, hate prisons and hate explotation. The simplest way to explain our politcis is do you hate cops, landlords, cas and bosses? When people answer yes, we ask who should be the desision makers? We should. When we choose a slogan like burn the prisons down we are not actually calling on people to do this because A. there are prisoners in the prisons B. they will get insurance money and build better ones. So logically its not true but emotionally it is. When they say in the 6 counties ” those 14 men in derry are the last that you will bury they are putting forward a slogan to be emotionally true anyone from Northern Ireland knows that thousands have died since bloody sunday, yet this slogan appeals to peoples hearts. So with slogans like “off the pigs” we are not calling on people to shoot cops, which would be suicide but bringing people into the movement by attracting them to the fact that we fight, playing off there natural class hatred and then once in the movement teaching them to love and serve the people. The purpose of a slogan is not necessary to be factually correct but to have a saying that unifys all people you are organizing and using it as a rallying cry to bring in as many people as possible, then taking them beyond a simple slogan and creating organizors.
People join because we are fighting. If they simply wanted free food they would go to the soup kitchen and get a meal, as oppossed to opening up themselves to repression and attack. People join us becuase we show the way forward and as long as one cadre remains standing we will continue to fight. Discussions of having mass meetings where everyone can attend are pointless, a true revolutionary acts based on there material conditions and will adapt to any curcumstance, as long as they dont change there politics and stay in touch with the people. Yes there is alot of fuck up shit we face, and not only from the cops but sometimes from each other as oppressed people trying to survive, yes we may come off as scary and always in crisis but we survive thrive and resist. That is how we fight. That is how we win.
Tags: Julian Ichim g20 blog